Silk is not the kind to stay silent. Vidya Balan, who plays South siren Silk Smitha in The Dirty Picture, has lashed out at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for its decision to scrap the TV premiere of the movie last Sunday.

“It defies logic when the same government body that has honoured a film with three National Awards, is now calling for the same film not to be broadcast on national television! What is even more astounding is that the Censor Board, which has cleared the film for television broadcast, is under the aegis of the very same government body!” she says.

Balan, 34, doesn’t stop at that. “I do hope that better sense prevails and that the film industry is not once again used as a convenient high profile punching bag for anyone looking to establish their high moral credentials.”
Sony, that had bought the television rights to the controversial and ‘bold’ film for R8crore, was running a countdown to the show even as less as two hours to the first screening, scheduled at noon. The second show was lined up for the 8pm slot, but both were apparently scrapped by the I&B ministry just hours before the allotted time even though the Censor Board had passed it for TV viewing with 59 cuts and a U/A certificate. “Our hands were tied. But “it” will come soon ... with a bang,” tweeted the channel’s business head, Sneha Rajani.

The I&B ministry, on its part, maintains that it’s an ‘11pm’ film and that they were forced to take action as there were over 600 complaints against screening the film at primetime on national television.

It’s double standards, says Bollywood
A national award winning film cannot have a national telecast??? this is not an irony but plain and simple hypocrisy! If the censorship is not a final authority then what is? Complicated and blurred lines defeat the core of democracy! (sic): Karan Johar on Twitter

Stopping dirty picture telecast is a classic example of a cat shutting its eyes and pretending that nobody is watching it. If the I&B ministry sits with today’s kids, they will educate the ministers on what’s dirty and what’s not: Ram Gopal Varma on Twitter.

In this country, a minister can watch porn in the parliament but won’t allow us to watch a 59cut-censored film at home: Kushan Nandy on Twitter

Obviously unfair since adult films have been shown before on TV after cuts ... what about all the junk that gets shown on all the channels as sensational news, who checks that?: Tusshar Kapoor, actor.